After the 1996 highway accident that left him permanently paralyzed from the neck down, there were days when Steven Fletcher lay in his hospital bed, wishing he could die. His thoughts had turned to suicide.

“He was pinned down, kept in place by the weight of his flesh, flesh that he could not feel, flesh that would not move, flesh that refused to serve him, but would not let go of him,” writes Linda McIntosh, in her 2008 biography of Fletcher.

The first of the new bills is guided by that sense of self-determination.

“It empowers people to make the best decision for themselves, based on their own morals and ethics, while ensuring that there is no pressure on that person from society, family, friends or the institution they are in, to seek assisted suicide,” he said.

The Winnipeg Conservative MP is an inspirational figure himself, emerging “bloody but unbowed” after everything life has thrown at him, to borrow again from William Ernest Henley’s poem

Mr. Fletcher was paralyzed from the neck down when his car struck a moose in 1996. Since then, he has been elected as an MP and elevated to Cabinet, before returning to the backbench last year.

Or, as he put it with customary wit: “I was gently removed to a different spot in the House of Commons. In other words, I got the boot from Cabinet.”

At the time he turned down the option of becoming a parliamentary secretary because he wanted to have the option of bringing forward private members bills.

The first bill calls for those with an illness or disease that is “intolerable to that person,” and cannot be alleviated by medical treatment, to be able to request physician-assisted death. The bill requires the person seeking help to die to sign a request in the presence of an assisting doctor and two witnesses. A consulting physician must sign off on the diagnosis and a 14-day period has to elapse between the signed request and the time the request is carried out.

The second bill calls for the establishment of a Canadian Commission on Physician-Assisted Death to collect information about people making assisted death requests.

Mr. Fletcher’s views on assisted suicide are born from painful experience — he talked of being intubated and nearly drowning in his own phlegm after his accident. “It was painful and terrifying,” he said.

He was just 23 and knew he was going to get better. But he said if he had been at the end of his life, he would have wanted the ability to end his own life.

The bills he has introduced are so far down the list of private business, it is unlikely they will reach the chamber this session. He could fast-track the bills if he can find another MP further up the list who will adopt his proposed legislation. I asked him if he was having conversations of that nature with anyone.

“That’s a very good question … next,” he said with a smile, which suggests we may yet see them this session.

If Parliament is to act, it will have to be soon.

‘It empowers people to make the best decision for themselves, based on their own morals and ethics’

The Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal this year by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, arguing Criminal Code provisions preventing assisted suicide are unconstitutional — this, 21 years after the Court upheld the law in the 1993 Sue Rodriguez decision.

But Mr. Fletcher said he believes in the supremacy of Parliament.

“Parliament is where we should be taking these decisions. The reality in Canada is that this discussion will be decided by the Supreme Court this fall by unelected, unaccountable judges.

“Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, I believe we should, as parliamentarians, look at this issue as one that affects all Canadians …we should be able to discuss it with respect, understanding and knowledge. We really have not had that debate in Parliament and it is long overdue.”

The House of Commons did vote on “right to die with dignity” legislation, proposed by the late Bloc MP Frances Lalonde, in 2010 but it was defeated 228-59 before reaching second reading.

The government’s line is that the House of Commons has had its say. “We have no intention of re-opening that debate,” said a statement issued by Peter MacKay, the justice minister, last fall.

The government’s position is supported by the Canadian Medical Association, which says backing a bill like Mr. Fletcher’s would require “a fundamental reconsideration of traditional medical ethics.”

But Mr. Fletcher said that attitudes in Parliament are shifting along with those of the Canadian public.

Wanda Morris, executive director of Dying With Dignity, said that polls suggest 80% of Canadians now support medically assisted deaths – with backing in every province, in every age group, every political party and from both sexes.

“This is an issue whose time has come,” she said.

Mr. Fletcher said he would like to get his bill passed this session, before the courts pronounce, but he is prepared to be patient. “I’m playing the long game, laying the foundations for a bill in the future. It’s inevitable because Canadians are demanding it.

“Not every baby boomer will die on the golf course,” he said, with a grin.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.